1. What is not so obvious from the spec's is that these engines produce a flat torque curve from just off idle to redline. They have none of that annoying "peakyness" you get from other bikes this size. You don't shift up and down hunting for the torque, you shift because the engine is close to the end of the range and you don't want to lug or redline it. The end result is that you can easily stay with bikes with twice the displacement.
2. With the Speedmaster, you will probably want to replace the seat for serious touring. That gunfighter style seat gives the passenger the feeling that they might slide off at any moment. Of course, this makes her want to hold onto you all the tighter, so it isn't all bad.
3. I have an America, which is a bit different as far as rider position, but I have had no problems riding several hundred miles at a time. I'd rather ride it on a long run than the wife's Roadking.
4. No reliability problems at all. Riding it hard, I get 43 to 45 MPG. By hard, I mean triple digit speeds in the desert with a headwind. Highway riding at some semblance of the speed limit gives me around 50 MPG or a little more.
5. There is a bolt at the back of the seat and a quick release latch in the middle, so the stock seat comes off easily enough. The 2 piece seat that comes on the America (the touring seat looks like it would be the same) has the same bolt at the back. The rear seat pushes forward a little to disengage it from a slot in the middle bolt and it then lifts off. Undo the middle bolt and the front seat lifts off.
6. The sky's the limit. At a minimum, aftermarket pipes, removal of the air injection system, removal of any rubber tubing in the airbox and rejetting would serve you well. There are kits to eliminate the airbox altogether for a marked improvement in breathing. The later bikes come with very mild exhaust valve timing, so anything you do to improve performance would be greatly enhanced with a different cam. You can get a big bore kit that increases the displacement to 904 CC without harming the street behavior at all. There are some of these bikes modified for racing that have been bored and stroked to 1200 or bigger.
7. These bikes are easy to work on. The engineering is excellent and makes me think the designers are also home mechanics. For an example, the cams are driven by an idler shaft that is driven by the timing chain. You can take the cams out and replace them without having to risk losing the chain down into the crankcase.
If you get any of the Triumph twins, you will not be disappointed, but the America and Speedmaster are the best of the bunch.
